Blood Summons
by Sallywags
Summary: AU missing scene from “School Hard”, extension of when Angel tells them about Spike in the library, what if someone else had been listening to that conversation, and decided to explain a few things about Spike, Angel and vampire lore. Meet Pandora.


Summons of Blood

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except any OCs, all owned by the Buffy and Angel Producers etc, apart from the poem which I nicked from Charmed. **

**AU missing scene from "School Hard", extension of when Angel tells them about Spike in the library, what if someone else had been listening to that conversation, and decided to explain a few things. (One Shot) Sequel to "The Price of Love" the "Fallen Angel Series".**

"He's worse, and he won't stop coming until everything in his path is dead." Angel's words hung ominously over the air, directing the attention of all the occupants of the room towards him. He hadn't meant to cause a scene but he **had** to make sure that Buffy took Spike seriously or else she would very likely be killed by him. Spike was not someone you should ever underestimate, though his flippant attitude, general impatience and disrespect for the rules made this a tempting thing to do.

He was so caught up in making Buffy understand that he never heard the careful footsteps behind him. Quiet footsteps, the footsteps of a predator stalking its prey…

"Spike would be flattered to hear you say so." The quiet, measured feminine voice cut through the tension in the room like a knife, as its owner stepped out of the shadows of the door way and moved to stand in the centre of the room, directly in front of the startled Scooby Gang, and only a few feet a way from the shell shocked Angel.

Angel couldn't believe it, he thought he must have been dreaming, but here she was, plain as day, a woman whom he had not seen in over a hundred years had just waltzed right back into his life, at the exact same time that Spike had…

"She looks incredible." He thought involuntarily, before realising that he was staring at her in a room with Buffy, the girl he was in love with, and all her friends, not the ideal place for this particular reunion to be staged. But though he didn't want to admit it, it was true, she stilled looked as she had done that fateful night 240 years ago when he had turned her, the clothes were different but it was still her, still his Cora…

He was pleased to see that Cora looked as radiant as ever, her outfit du jour consisting of a short black leather skirt, red lacy top and knee high black boots. The ensemble was topped off with acid green eye shadow and a deep red lipstick, an alluring combination, emphasising the pale pallor of her skin almost as much as her vivid red hair, bouncing in shiny curls around her shoulders. She looked for all the world like his first true love, but she wasn't…Angelus had seen to that …and he had to remember that, no matter how much it hurt… Her cold green eyes attested that, Cora's soft eyes had never held that much hatred towards him…

"Its good to see you again Angelus." She stated coolly, "Though not passed due," she laughed, "you were supposed to meet me in Paris my love, in 1900, remember? What kept you? We almost thought you were dead, though we still detected your presence in the blood bond." she questioned, irritation tainting her cool even tones.

"Got side tracked in Romania." Angel answered her cautiously, not wanting to reveal too much to her that could be used against him, and fearful of what she might already know, about him, and about Buffy…

"And what's in Romania?" she questioned him casually, her green eyes glittering with malice, though in such a way that Angel suspected that she already knew what had happened there…

"Gypsies." Angel admitted, ambiguously, trying not give too much away, whilst making it seem like he was being completely open, hopefully she wouldn't be suspicious, after all he was normally a man of few words anyway…

"Oh!" she exclaimed, as though that answered everything, before grinning wickedly and replying, "You always were a one for delicacies Angelus." Taking a very pointed step towards Buffy and her friends as she spoke, eying them as one would an all you can eat buffet.

"Leave them out of this!" growled Angel menacingly, praying to a God that he had long since stopped believing in that she would not try and attack Buffy and the Scoobies.

"So its true then?" she questioned incredulously, "The great Angelus, The Scourge of Europe really is siding with the Slayer against his own kind, against family no less!" she spat her voice positively dripping with, not only disdain, but more surprisingly, amusement. "Wonders never cease!" she exclaimed laughing mirthlessly.

"You already knew!" bellowed Angel in fury, she had been playing with him all along!

"Of course I knew!" spat back Cora with equal venom, "How could I not know! You came here to warn the Slayer about Spike!" she screeched in accusation, before fixing him with her coldest stare and finishing bitingly, "Rumour has it you're screwing her too!" His inability to hold her stare was proof enough of the validity of the rumours as she threw her head back and laughed at his expense, "How the mighty have fallen!", she hissed glaring at him with contempt.

"Fine!" spat Angel wearily, longing for this confrontation to be over, and wishing that one of the Scoobies would find their tongue and say something before this situation got any worse for him. "You know about what I've been doing, now what are you going to do about it?" he questioned threateningly, willing some of Angelus' menace into the tone of his voice.

"Why nothing of course." Chirped Cora far too cheerily for Angel's comfort, of all his childer it had to be Cora that found him, Drusilla, James, Elizabeth or even Penn he could handle but Cora was bound to cause trouble, the girl was too crafty for her own good. "I just hope I'm there when Spike figures it out, should be some excellent fireworks. I wouldn't miss that scene for all the blood in Sunnydale." She finished her voice still eerily cheery, her eyes glinting manically in the dim light of the library.

"So there it is the punch line, I knew she was up to something!" thought Angel furiously, wondering what the hell he was going to have to promise to keep her from blabbing all to Spike. "So I suppose you're going to tell Spike then?" questioned Angel, trying not to let his voice betray any of the fear that he was feeling.

"Nope!" smiled Cora innocently as she began to stalk around the room, successfully making Angel even more nervous, "Why would I do that when he can figure it out himself?" she questioned sweetly, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, before continuing, "I can just see his face when he realises that the Great Angelus is house broken!"

"OK, I can understand that, but then why are you here now?" spat Angel his voice shaking with suppressed frustration and anger, he had had enough of this frustrating conversation for one day, and wanted answers now!

"You mean you really don't know?" questioned Cora incredulously, clearly she had not been expecting him to say that, and Angel was thrown by her response.

"Should I?" questioned Angel uncertainly, having no idea at all of what Cora was getting at.

"You called us Angelus!" she spat, disbelief at his ignorance apparent in her voice, "Your demon was in pain over Darla's death and it called to us, so we came, its not as though we had any choice in the matter, none of us can ignore a sire's beckoning!" she screamed, furious at his lack of understanding. "Why do you think we came to this god forsaken little town!" she screeched, pausing only to take an unnecessary breath, "Your lucky that only three of us came, James, Lizzie and Penn are in Europe right now or else they would have come too!" Lowering her voice and resuming her previous calm demeanour she continued, "Do you honestly think that we would have come here by choice?" She questioned incredulously, "Blood to blood I summon thee, blood to blood return to me.", she sing-songed cheerily, an undertone of anger clear in her voice, "Or have you forgotten?" She asked sarcastically, raising a perfectly arched eyebrow in faux amusement, though also seemingly enjoying the bafflement of the Scoobies. "This may be the site of the Hellmouth Angelus," she continued sombrely, " but wiping out humanity was never one of our plans, unlike you we tend to adopt a more liberal live and let live philosophy when it comes to humans. Not all of us kill for pleasure and even Spike would never have come here if you hadn't called." she finished, fixing him with a fierce evaluating stare.

"I'm sorry," shrugged Angel apologetically, "I really didn't know." He explained fixing her with his most earnest gaze, "And what do you mean three?" questioned Angel, seemingly just realising what she had said.

Cora shock her head, raking a hand through her vivid red curls in exasperation, "Those gypsies really did a number on you didn't they?" she sighed, "Drusilla's alive, you know that right? I mean if she wasn't you would have felt her die, we all would have, like we all felt Darla die." she sighed again, shaking her head and fixing Angel with her most sympathetic gaze, stepping forward to touch his cold cheek with her icy hand and looking him straight in the eye she continued, "You may have a soul Angelus, but that doesn't make you human. You are still a vampire at your core, you're just ashamed to show it anymore…" she said, stroking her slender fingers along his jaw as she spoke, before tracing one long red talon across his cheek hard enough to draw blood, which she then tasted, pulling a face at the flavour…

"What the hell are you doing bitch?" screeched a very irate Buffy, from the other side of the room, apparently angry that anyone was putting their hands all over Angel, "And drinking blood, ewwww!" she finished grimacing in obvious disgust, along with Willow, Xander and Cordelia.

"Just testing a theory." Said Cora brightly, stepping away from Angel, slightly.

"Which was?" questioned Giles, curiosity now apparently over riding any fear he had about their strange guest.

"Pigs blood." Cora stated, glancing at Angel, who gave a nod of confirmation, "Ah," she exclaimed in sudden understanding, "No wonder you look so pale, if you drank human blood you'd feel better and be more in touch with your demon."

"Maybe I don't wanna feel better or get in touch with my demon!" exclaimed Angel angrily to the shock of the room at large.

"Your choice." Admitted Cora calmly, "But you don't have to kill to feed, its amazing what people will let you do when they're drunk, and you don't have to drain them completely." She stated logically.

"Its amazing how rational what we do sounds when you put it like that!" thought Angel with mild disgust.

"Whatever," stated Cora, noting Angel's look of self-loathing, "If you want to starve yourself that's your prerogative."

"Why are you here?" snapped Angel, now really angry about Cora being here and deeming to give him advice. Him!

"I thought we'd been through this already." Sighed Cora tiredly.

"No," interrupted Angel, "I know why your in town but why are you here?" he questioned gesturing around the library for emphasis.

"Well I followed you, _obviously,_ speaking of you're getting sloppy in your old age, time was you would have seen me coming a mile away," she shot back condescendingly. "And as for the rest," she paused to pull a hand through her tousled curls in agitation, biting her lip briefly she continued, "I guess I was worried about you…" she admitted sheepishly, "I heard rumours over the years, about you shunning our kind, having a soul stuff like that, then recently I start hearing rumours about you helping the Slayer…" she explained before continuing calmly, " I know we've never been on the best terms but we're still blood and that means something, or it used to anyway…" she trailed off, not looking him in the eye.

"What is that supposed to mean?" snapped Angel, furious at the implication that family meant nothing to him.

"What the fuck do you think it means Angelus!" fumed Cora, irritated that yet again he did not understand where she was coming from, "You left us all alone with that bitch Darla! You abandoned us! Your family! Your childer! And we didn't hear anything from you for what 100 years, you never once tried to contact us! You were all I had and you left! And then the first word we get of you are whispers that you killed your sire! **Your sire!** Darla may have been a bitch but she was your sire! You don't kill your sire Angelus it's just not done!" she raged, her voice dripping with accusation and disdain, "You killed your sire for the Slayer," she continued her rant in a softer tone, "So what is to stop you doing the same to me?" she finished in a tiny voice, laced with vulnerability and fear.

It broke Angel's heart to hear Cora accuse him of ever being capable of killing her, how could she ever think that? Cora was his world, always would be, he could never undo what he had done to her, no matter how much he wanted to, but he could **never** kill her, it would be like killing the last piece of him that was human, that still remained Liam, even after all these years and all the people that he had killed.

"Cora…" began Angel tenderly.

"Don't ever call me that Angelus! Its Pandora now, you killed Cora O'Malley 240 years ago. I'm not her anymore!" interrupted Cora, livid with rage that Angel would ever dare to call her that.

"Its Angel now." Stated Angel calmly.

"That's right!" confirmed Xander from his front row seat at the table, his mouth stuffed with chips, "And…. I'll just be over here now pretending that I'm not listening…" he gulped, visibly wilting upon seeing Pandora's death glare aimed at him for interrupting.

"No its not, its Angelus it'll always be Angelus!" she stated in a voice tinged with steel, "My angel died 240 years ago at the hands of that bitch Darla, and you're not him!" she finished coldly, her eyes glowering chips of emerald boring into his, daring him to argue with her.

Looking her in the eye for the first time Angel saw the true damage that he had done to Cora… no Pandora, as Angelus. He remembered a time when her eyes would light up with love every time they looked at him, now they were shuttered, blocking his view of her feelings and leaving in them only her hatred of him, a hatred he deserved all too well… He could remember Angelus torturing her, abusing his sire's bond to force himself on her, breaking her down until there was nothing left of the vibrant young woman he had known, he had created Pandora in the same way that he had created Drusilla, Spike and Penn, breaking her down, destroying her, and rebuilding her in his image. It was no wonder she hated him, what amazed him was her anger at him for leaving, surely she would have been happy that he did?

He was overwhelmed with guilt for what he had done to her, he needed her to know that he was sorry, so steeling his courage he began, "I…"

"Don't you dare say you are fucking sorry!" she seethed, "Sorry is not nearly good enough! Sorry won't give me back my life! Sorry won't change my fate! In fact sorry is a fucking pathetic word considering what you did!" she finished, struggling not to sob.

"What else can I say?" questioned Angel helplessly, he knew that there was nothing he could say that could ever undo what he had done, there was no reason for her to forgive him, he didn't expect it, he deserved all she could throw at him and more. His heart broke as he watched a tear slide down her porcelain cheek, how had he done this to her? He reached out longing to comfort her, to hold her as he had when they were children, but to his pain, she pushed him away.

"Don't touch me!" she screamed, recoiling from his attempted touch with a look of terror on her face, "You betrayed me there is nothing you can say to that! I trusted you! Everyone else was trying to control my life, I had no control over anything, between my father and my Watcher I was completely trapped! My only possible escape was death but you took even that from me! You condemned me to walk the earth forever, and now I am tied to the Council, to the Powers That Be perhaps until the end of time! I will never be free of this destiny!" taking a breath she finished quietly, gazing at him with pain filled green eyes, "You should have let me die 240 years ago."

Angel didn't know what to say to that, he hadn't known that she was the Slayer when he turned her, she was just the girl he was in love with, he hadn't even known what a Slayer was, but he had known that she felt her life was not in her control and he knew that he had had no right to manipulate her further, even if he had been under the influence of evil at the time.

"Watcher?" questioned Giles weakly. Seemingly confused by what he had just heard.

"Yes, Watcher," answered Pandora shakily, "Before I died I was the Slayer, and now I have the dubious honour of being the only Slayer to have ever become what she hunted. But don't worry, I won't bite you, pesky soul'll make me feel guilty about it." Upon seeing their blank looks she explained, "When my Watcher figured out what I'd become he used the ancient magics of the Celts to bind my soul to my body. He feared what might happen if I truly became a vampire so he prevented it, for which I am eternally grateful."

"As am I." Thought Angel fervently, he had enough to feel guilty for without adding unleashing a creature of that kind of power on the world. He had not actually known that she had a soul before, but he had always known that she was a strange vampire, she played both teams, good and evil, toeing the line between the two, neither one thing nor the other, it was one of the things which made her so dangerous and unpredictable as you never knew which side she was on at any given time. He had tolerated her behaviour over the years, not killing people etc but he had never even guessed, not even in the past 100 years of having a soul himself, that she had one too, and that that was the reason for her atypical behaviour.

"So you're a Slayer?" questioned Buffy incredulously, looking at Pandora in a new light and apparently still digesting this new piece of information.

"Was a Slayer, once upon a time, but he changed all that." Stated Pandora calmly gesturing towards Angel, who had ducked his head in shame at the Scoobies scrutiny, "Why does it matter?" she asked curiously.

"It matters." Stated Buffy with certainty, "It means I'm not alone."

"A Slayer is always alone, remember that Buffy, you may have you little gang her," she gestured towards the Scoobies, "but in the end you will always fight alone, that's just the way it is. Sorry." She said, shrugging apologetically.

"There's no reason to frighten her." Complained Angel quietly.

"There is every reason to frighten her." Interrupted Pandora heatedly, "Spike is coming for her Angelus, you know what that means! He is obsessed with Slayers and he's killed two already! She could be next." She explained coldly.

"I won't let that happen!" exclaimed Angel vehemently, he was not about to let Buffy die! Though news that Spike had killed another Slayer since he had last seen him was not good, and was in fact, rather disheartening.

"You won't have a choice." Stated Pandora, a tone of finality clear in her voice, "Assuming you have no problem standing against blood, which I can believe," she sneered nastily, "there is still the fact that you could barely take down Spike in your prime, let alone in your present condition." She finished, looking him over with a raised eyebrow.

She was right and Angel knew it, but he didn't have to like it. Spike was a fearsome fighter, which was the main reason that he was concerned about Buffy after all, and it was a distinct possibility that Spike could take him down in a fight especially considering that for the last century he had only really fed on animal blood, which wasn't as nourishing as human, and he hadn't even had enough of that to keep in prime condition. Angel also knew that he wasn't as comfortable now with using the dirty tricks which Angelus had so favoured in a fight, and if he was honest with himself they were the only reason Spike had never managed to best him when they had fought in the past, them and Angelus' greater physical size and experience.

If he was completely honest with himself, Angel knew that Spike was the better fighter, the man was fearless, he fought with complete disregard for his own safety, and a dogged determination and passion that even Angelus had never been able to match but Angel'd be damned, well more so than he was already, before he **ever** admitted that to Spike…. But now was not the time to get bogged down in ridiculous musings on Spike's psyche…

"Why do you care anyway?" sneered Angel nastily, "I thought you wouldn't side against family?"

"I won't", admitted Pandora, "but I have what you might call a conflict of interests, I don't want Spike to die, but I also don't want the Slayer to die, it's all about maintaining the balance, if I can."

"How noble of you!" Angel mocked, "So who exactly are you working for?" he asked, trying to mask the genuine curiosity in her voice, he had always wondered who Pandora worked for, and what motivated her.

"Does it matter?" she asked, at Angel's look Pandora expanded, "It depends sometimes the Council, other times the Powers That Be, sometimes I just work for me, I'm all about moral ambiguity. " she smiled disarmingly, belying the seriousness of her words.

"So why come here to talk to us? Why bother if you aren't going to take sides?" questioned Angel, curiosity tingeing his voice.

"To give you fair warning," she answered logically turning to Buffy, "and to tell you to leave," she explained turning towards Angel, "you can't fight him, and if you stay he could kill you or you could kill him, either way more of my family will die. Not something I want, so consider my actions selfishly motivated if you want." She rationalised, though Angel could tell her words were filled with true concern, of a kind, which it warmed his heart to hear.

"I can't ever forgive you for what you've done Angelus but that doesn't mean that I want you to die either, " she paused catching his eye and for once not shuttering her own eyes when she did, "but you should go, its safer all round if you do. Are you honestly sure that you won't hurt her if you stay? I'm not trying to scare you, or control you, just consider it a friendly warning. Until next time beloved." She ended as she suddenly moved to leave the library, apparently finished with this conversation.

"I assume your staying with Spike then." Stated Angel, certain he did not want to know the answer to this question but determined to ask it anyway, if only to torment himself further.

"You no longer have any right to ask me that, but yes. I am staying with them, for now at least, being with family, it's like coming home." She explained, a small smile on her face for the first time all night.

"So you're sleeping with him then?" he questioned, dreading her answer.

"I'll leave that for you to decide." She side-stepped his question subtly, turning again to leave.

"Are you sure you can trust him?" Angel couldn't help asking, his voice tinged with worry.

"Of course I can't trust him, that's half the fun!" laughed Pandora mockingly, before turning serious and explaining, "I can take care of myself Angelus, besides," she admitted, "Spike's a good man, or at least he was originally which is more than can be said for the rest of us." She laughed jovially before continuing to walk towards the door, turning back one last time to say. "Goodbye Angelus and good luck." Turning to Buffy she continued "Same to you Miss Summers, with Spike and Dru in town god knows you're going to need it."

With that said she smirked evilly at the Scoobies and swept out of the library. Leaving behind her a room full of people unsure whether to trust her or not. She had raised yet more questions about the mysterious Angel, not to mention the questions they now had about her. The question on everyone's lips however was, "Is she on our side?" a question for which none of them yet had an answer, perhaps a question which Pandora herself couldn't answer.

**Well that was it the continuation of my story about Pandora. So you know the drill, review and please tell me what you think, crap or alright it would help if someone told me! Thanks! XXXX**


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